The Communications Room » TV

Watching people watching TV

carlmoggy — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:33:40 +0000

I’d love to see cameras on ratings boxes so we know what actually happens in an ad break. So this kind of cool.An Australian family sitting down to watch the Ariel Ping Pong Grand Final, the biggest sporting event of the year.

How TV ruined your life?

carlmoggy — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:59:32 +0000

The ever brilliant Charlie Brooker has recently been exploring what we all know – there is in fact a massive gap bewteen what happens on TV and real life. In ‘How TV ruined your life?’ Brooker deadpans his way through iconic programming to some of the most cringing advertising ever created. Here’s my favourite episode by far.

How to raise levels of employment

carlmoggy — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:12:00 +0000

I love the Australian government’s approach to reducing rates of unemployment. It’s quite simple really…they make morning TV that is so bad even the most mundane of professions will look appealing. Pretty much every channel will break out into these God awful infomercials that try and blend seamlessly into the show. They would make even the cheesiest of people cringe. Something tells me though that they may well do the job. The worst culprits are David and Kim. Check this bad boy out.

Man I miss Richard and Judy.

Toohey’s – Wild beer ideas

carlmoggy — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:01:00 +0000

I like to think I’m not one to slag off a campaign. You never know the ins and outs of the strategy and the relationship with the client. So I will try and remain constructive on this one, but I’m referring to this Toohey’s New ad that aired recently on Aussie TV.

I love the production. It is quirky and has a nice personality and to be fair it makes me want to watch it all the way through. So half the battle has been won. However why did they force it into this big online ‘wild beer idea’ participation thing. It just doesn’t really do it for me. Why?

Because they have no intention of actually doing any of these ideas. Which defeats the object of it all really doesn’t it? I for one would like to have seen a lager swilling Aussie, preferrably a sports fan, chryogenically frozen. Unfortunately for Toohey’s there are more comments on the site from industry types than there are from their target audience. Those that are on there look a bit set up. You know the thing where someone sends a staff email and asks everyone to sign up to a site and leave a comment. Admit it, we have all done it.

I would have been happy going to a slick site, registering my details with the opportunity to win a fridge. Job done. There needs to be some purpose otherwise it lacks any kind of authenticity. There was a neat idea in there but someone somewhere didn’t want to follow it through. It lacked a bit of conviction to turn it into a great participation campaign, which would have been really cool. It would have been more interesting to see it move offline as more of a ‘wild beer reward’ for Toohey’s New drinkers, something that mobilses people into some kind of group action. People could of voted for one of three proposed ‘wild beer events’ that Toohey’s were putting on for free.

Things I like # 4 Rio´s street cleaners

carlmoggy — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 21:12:00 +0000

I don´t think you can get much more of an iconic uniform than these guys who work all hours keeping the streets of Rio clean and tidy.

On my travels I was lucky enough to go to the Carnival to watch the parade at the Sambadrome and it was one of the best experiences of my life. However I was surprised to find that the street cleaners do actually open it like they do in the Orange ad. Rumour has it Renato was leading them out, but I´m not 100% sure.

The most honest ad ever?

carlmoggy — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:45:00 +0000

I saw this whilst watching a Mexican version of Tarrant on TV. I wonder how many creatives would admit to just wanting to create great big, expensive ads?

You’ll never touch the balls but…

carlmoggy — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 11:59:00 +0000

No doubt there is going to be a whole host of posts critiquing the new Bravia ad. I’d imagine most them will relate to it not being as good as the balls and in my opinion it probably isn’t. It’s still fantastic though and I doubt anything will ever touch the balls.

Very few things surpass its first instalment. Beverly Hills Cop, Crocodile Dundee, Indiana Jones and Police Academy being perfect examples! Arguably Godfather II is the only exception to the rule. It’s all pretty subjective really and that’s the beauty of the ads. Everyone will have their favourite but always wait in anticipation for the next one and the next spoof.

To me the Sony Bravia ads have become iconic and grown bigger than the execution. People are just as interested in the making of them and the music as they are the product it’s trying to sell. Very few ads will actually get people actively seeking out the execution and the story behind it in the way Sony and Fallon have. If that was the intention when they set out on the ‘Colour like no other’ journey then there are some seriously clever folks at Fallon.

To start with this…

Bravia balls

I’m looking forward to where this goes

The Jane-O-Meter

carlmoggy — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 08:28:00 +0000

This is Jane, otherwise known as my beautiful other half (I don’t know why she insists on wearing this mask). One of the many things that I love about Jane is her straight talking, say it how it is attitude. Jane isn’t afraid to give her opinion on a whole host of issues. Most notably me leaving my socks lying around. So whenever an ad of note comes on TV I always listen to see what she blurts out. I never prompt her and she probably doesn’t even know I do it until now. I think it’s a good way of getting an anecdotal, objective opinion straight off the cuff.

Now there has been quite a few posts lately relating to the Cadburys Gorilla ad and Smirnoff’s airplane ad with many people arguing the whys and wherefores of each.

So I thought I would post how they scored on the Jane-O-Meter, who is a heavy consumer of both vodka and chocolate I might add…

Smirnoff Vodka

The blogosphere said this, this and this

The Jane-O-Meter said: “How random…I bloody love it”